Empire-Destroying Wars Are Coming To America Under Trump - Part 2

It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.

A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small “inside” group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.

I base this view on his actions since coming into office, as well as the bloodthirsty war hawks he’s increasingly turning to for advice, with Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton being the most concerning of all.

Today’s post will dig into how Trump will attempt to sell his wars, and will also address the role corporate media is likely to play in the legitimization of any future destructive conflagration.

To understand how Trump will attempt to rally his base to support another idiotic overseas conflict, all we have to do is look at his recent obsession with promoting fake patriotism via the NFL national anthem controversy. As I noted in the recent post, Thoughts on Trump, Fake Patriotism and ‘Taking a Knee’:

When I look at Trump’s commentary and tweets in aggregate one thing becomes crystal clear. Trump is trying to redefine America and what it means to be a patriot in superficial and jingoistic terms. He’s essentially grooming his supporters into thinking that worshipping a piece of fabric is what separates those who love this country from those who hate it and want to destroy it. By making this about a symbol as opposed to the ideas that this symbol represents, he allows his supporters to feel they are a part of “taking America back” while not even remotely comprehending what the country is actually all about. It’s like losing weight while eating whatever you want, all you have to do is vomit afterwards. Trump is essentially conditioning his supporters to follow him as he regurgitates all over the Constitution, because as long as they stay true to a piece of fabric or song, they honor the country. Patriotism made easy.

Which is why what Trump did here is the most dangerous thing he’s done since becoming President. He’s using an issue that existed and was already divisive as a way to redefine what patriotism means in America. It’s no longer about free speech, the right to privacy and the rest of it, but rather patriotism now revolves around a song and a flag. A societal embrace of this sort of fake patriotism is how horrible things happen, and I hope most Trump voters are wise enough to see this.

In case you haven’t noticed, Trump isn’t dropping the NFL thing, which makes me even more convinced I’m on to something. If he can convince his diehard supporters and other segments of the U.S. population that patriotism is as simple as flag worship versus adherence to our founding principles, he can surely convince them to support anther stupid war because it’d be unpatriotic not to.

This is precisely why I focused on the NFL issue a couple of weeks ago. I don’t think it’s a distraction at all, rather, I think it’s part of a much larger campaign to get his supporters to accept President Trump as the arbiter of what’s considered patriotic and what isn’t. Today it’s standing for the national anthem, tomorrow it’ll be whether or not you support a new crazy military adventure. He’s preemptively conditioning his groupies to follow him into cataclysm and cheer their own destruction along the way. Mike Pence was a willing participant in this manufacturing of fake patriotism over the weekend via his cheap stunt at the Colts game.

This will be Trump’s play. Given his clownish and undeniable betrayal when it comes to economic populism, he will increasingly focus on the culture war, and then ultimately, real war.

In order to successfully sell war, Trump will probably need one other thing in addition to a passive, slobbering base of fake patriots. He’ll also need the corporate media.

I know, I know, the media hates Trump, right? There’s no way they’ll support a major war launched by Trump you say. On this, I unfortunately will have to disagree.

On the question of war, the corporate media has proven itself to be craven bloodthirsty sycophants to the foreign policy establishment irrespective of who resides in the Oval Office. I suspect the same will be true when it comes to Trump, especially if Iran becomes the key target of mindless imperial aggression.

In order to understand how shamelessly and dishonestly the corporate media gets behind war based on total fabrications, let’s take a look at some comments from Chris Hedges in a recent must read interview.

I was on the investigative team at the New York Times during the lead-up to the Iraq War. I was based in Paris and covered Al Qaeda in Europe and the Middle East. Lewis Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney, Richard Perle and maybe somebody in an intelligence agency, would confirm whatever story the administration was attempting to pitch. Journalistic rules at the Times say you can’t go with a one-source story. But if you have three or four supposedly independent sources confirming the same narrative, then you can go with it, which is how they did it. The paper did not break any rules taught at Columbia journalism school, but everything they wrote was a lie.

The whole exercise was farcical. The White House would leak some bogus story to Judy Miller or Michael Gordon, and then go on the talk shows to say, ‘as the Times reported….’ It gave these lies the veneer of independence and reputable journalism. This was a massive institutional failing, and one the paper has never faced.

Have we seen any evidence that The New York Times or Washington Post have changed their ways? I say no, and I wouldn’t at all be surprised to see them ultimately war-monger behind Trump on Iran. At the end of the day, they don’t dislike Trump’s policies so much as they dislike his personal style and demeanor. They prefer a slick marketer for the status quo like Barack Obama in the White House — a charismatic executioner, a man who calls Wall Street executives fat cats one day, then endorses trillions in no strings attached bailouts the next. The foreign policy establishment has been salivating about taking out Iran for decades, and if Trump goes there, I suspect corporate media will enthusiastically cheerlead him into battle.

Today’s post discussed how I think Trump will sell his wars, and explored the possibility that corporate media ultimately will get behind them. Tomorrow’s post will dig into why I think any major new wars under Trump will lead to an acceleration in U.S. imperial collapse. A decline we need to accept as both highly probable and dangerous, but also one that could provide once in a generation opportunities for meaningful positive change.

In the meantime, if you liked this article and enjoy my work, consider becoming a monthly Patron, or visit our Support Page to show your appreciation for independent content creators.

"We are not denying and are not afraid to confess that this war is our war and that it is waged for the liberation of Jewry... Stronger than all fronts together is our front, that of Jewry. We are not only giving this war our financial support on which the entire war production is based, we are not only providing our full propaganda power which is the moral energy that keeps this war going. The guarantee of victory is predominantly based on weakening the enemy forces, on destroying them in their own country, within the resistance. And we are the Trojan horses in the enemy's fortress. Thousands of Jews living in Europe constitute the principal factor in the destruction of our enemy. There, our front is a fact and the most valuable aid for victory (Weizmann is alluding to Hitler and other Jew Nazis)." Chaim Weizmann, President of the World Jewish Congress, Head of the Jewish Agency and later President of Israel.

Trump is a puppet of the NWO, like all other presidents before him. At least since Kennedy. He makes no decisions, he is just selling them to us. So we still believe we live in a democracy. We are the good ones, yes let's send our kids to war. But in the end they all die for the parasitic elites. All wars are bankers wars.

War with the Norks would be an EASY sell to the US public. I'd be more surprised if we DON'T start a "kinetic freedom" campaign against them than I would if we somehow miraculously avoided one.The ball is teed up and we're already in our backswing on this one.That being said, I couldn't follow the logic in the article. Seemed a bit far-fetched and forcibly beaten and twisted into form to me. Maybe I share a similar conclusion, but definitely nothing close to the same path getting there.

Fake Patriotism? OMG, I got booed and hissed weeks ago, when I called it "Patriotism on Demand".Is it the idea that was so absurd, or could it be the objectionable name of my handle that rubs the people the wrong way?

The instant Trump actually goes to war he wins the title, "No Different From The Rest Of Them", regardless of whatever excuse is dreamt up on the day.Waving the big stick is mediocre bullying - it makes Trump look like a poor negotiator and/or a Deep State Puppet, even IF it is the best negotiating tactic for this situation. It is bad for his brand. People expect Trump to win with class. (okay, okay, I know some of you just threw up on that last sentence. Give a good retort and I will not be able to challenge you. Something along the lines of "Only a completely ignorant moron believes Trump has any class because if you actually look at what he does then ... , for example if you look closely at ... then you will find ..." - but you've got to admit that he usually does a better job at hiding tackiness from the public (okay, feel free to challenge that statement too.) )"I'd rather negotiate with a psychopath [than an emotionless, logical person]. He rants and raves. You rant and rave. But at least you end up making some kind of deal." (IF I remember rightly, from Herb Cohen in "You Can Negotiate Anything.)As a negotiator, Trump must let the other team know that all options are on the table but, given his pre-election talk, playing the rabid attack dog makes him look like an amateur, not a professional. It hurts his brand, even if it is the best tactic. Anyone can be a "top negotiator" when they have the biggest stick. Until they are beaten by the negotiator with the smaller stick. Then they quickly become nothing. Hence, if Trump goes to war, he has lost. But if, by threatening war, he prevents war, then he wins. At that stage, Scott Adams' prediction comes true ("By the end of the year, people will be saying that Trump gets things done but they still don't like it.") Trump can only win if he wins with class. The big stick has no class.It is up to Trump's base to keep him honest, if they can. Surely any war would turn Trump into a one-term President - unless it looked like US was genuinely being attacked and / or the war had the correct timing before the 2020 election (plus the Puppet Masters can simply get morons to lead all the other parties). Trump's base needs to hammer him hard to forget foreign policy and concentrate on domestic policy. Ask loud and clear, every single day, "WHAT HAPPENED TO MAGA? WHERE'S MAGA?" ("Where's MAGA?" Surely that would be a great title for a book. Better still, signs and bumper stickers in all dilapidated areas in the US.) TPTB will respond loud and clear, "BUT YOU'RE ALL GONNA DIE. YOU NEED TO GO TO WAR, DAMMIT!!! And anyone who complains is selfish for putting themselves first and letting the country be bombed... - you know the drill. But somehow you still have to get that message through - you're creating the war so we forget MAGA."We should never have gone to war in Iraq. But given that we did, we should have taken the oil." - Trump (you'll have to look for the exact wording but I'm sure you already knew that.) Trump is on record saying we should not be fighting wars. But he is also on record saying the US needs a stronger military. The instant he goes to war, the Ds come out in full force saying, "See! We told you he woz a new Hitler!!!" Or will they? We all know the MSM are Presstitute war mongers. Will team D meekly follow the MSM and forget all their "peace-loving" ideals??? (Yes, it's hard to type that sentence without getting strange expressions on my face.) MSM built up Trump to be the devil-incarnate and yet they cheer on every war that happens. Which path will team D choose? What will MSM say? It's a good war but Trump isn't running it properly? We wish Hillary was here to run the war properly??? Trump is evil becoz he went to war with NorK when Hillary was supposed to go to war with Syria? ... but Kimmy is evil so we have to bomb NorK anyway?Then again, I don't suppose you have to have a logical narrative when you're dealing with a population with the mind of an ADD pit-bull puppy on meth.

Hey Mike. Ask yourself if you think Trump is acting alone on all this or if you think he's being cojoled to acting this way. IOW ~ By influences who stand to benefit? Why would Trump, as a lone figure, and having spent his life as a real estate & property mogul worldwide all of a sudden become a warmonger & run around drumming up new wars?

I concur Which is why I find this sort of 'analysis' by someone like Krieger (or others), a waste of words tantamount to hackery because there are only 2 conclusions to be drawn from that. 1. The author is a complete clueless idiot2. The author KNOWS that there are deeper issues (that aren't allowed to be talked about publicly), so he/she scribbles some essay full of half truths & misdirection. & PROFITS from spreading it around. Which basically makes you a liar & a whore.

Perhaps Tehran denied him the rights to build a Trump Golf and Country Club with Hotel? It's difficult to play Golf in all those robes, don't you know? More likely, however, because he has surrounded himself with Military "Minders" and Neocons. The last "independent" voice who remains is Kellyanne Conway, and in case you hadn't noticed she has become diluted to the invisible.

Combine serial amnesia with the kind of gloating, mischievous ignorance of all that exists outside of mythical, 'mainstream' Merika

\fyi- Iranians males generally wear the same clothing styles as u do retard... 'shirt & pants'... perhaps you are confused about the difference between say, sunni saudistan and its' shia neighbors?////and this is one of those merikans who "lives" abroad... but packs their ignorance wherever they go@@~!

and you get the classic ZHEEPLE experience...

dotards doting pon the latest herd redirection by their media masters, competing to see who can duplicate the approved script(s)best, at any given moment. ...to the applause of their fellow merikan-fisters(tm).

Yupper... the same tards who somehow now conveniently FORGET just how vigorously they worked the TRUMP DECEPTION meme ONE YEAR AGO... who gloated bout "the cucks" and rode the Tr(i)upmhalist Train round n round the playground for months after November...

are now reduced to sullen imprecations about the DUKE OF ORANGE and his chosen clique - |betraying them| - hahaha!

and calling Krieger a 'total idiot' for nailing their neurosis ... and naming the disease.

I think it is ignorant to believe the one man army of Trump wading through the swamp of D.C. It does work to build that blind faith in an 'American Hero' persona. Article is on the money, probably has alot of MIC buddies.

"On the question of war, the corporate media has proven itself to be craven bloodthirsty sycophants to the foreign policy establishment irrespective of who resides in the Oval Office."Because regardless of who resides in office, the media is still controlled by ravenously bloodthirsty zionist jews.

On the bright side, our freedom loving President has in the last few weeks: 1) told private NFL owners what to do with their private employees where it concerns forced patriotism; 2) threatened the broadcasting license of a major network after they reported that a cabinet member called him a moron; and 3) proposed a tax plan that will free the middle class from the burden of the tax man once and for all.Speaking in the language of current Trump supporters, one of these things is not like the other. One of these things is not the same.

Libertarianism is dying. There can be no "freedoms" if a government that dislikes you is growing in power. Nationalism is the new wave, and it's funny how many still are willingly oblivious to this fact.

The US is slouching towards fascism.I would choose to avoid attending any public event where there would be serious ramifications to my life if I chose to not stand during the National Anthem.If the other participants (mothers and fathers) didn't beat me to death, I would likely be arrested for disorderly conduct.

The icing on the cake is that the Antifa (anti-fascist) movement wants the government to tell us all how to think on the all-so-important issue of proper pronouns to use with transgenders, while the "freedom" movement wants to tell professional sports teams to salute the flag on command. You've got to love the irony.

"while the "freedom" movement wants to tell professional sports teams to salute the flag on command." Frankly ~ I don't think that's what, (your words), "freedom" movement wants at all. I'd say that 9 out of 10 are just sick and tired of watching a bunch of millionaire dindus waving their politics in whiteys face on TV & pout about how they have it so rough & it's all whitey's fault. & since you can't walk around anywhere and say that to anyone without getting scorned, or even perhaps fired from your job, you need something to wrap it around. So, the flag & the anthem became the symbol. So ~ that's the 'truth' part of it, (which, I'll admit, has an irony all of its own)

Maybe Nationalism, but which nation? Certainly not the US, as these same people always put the welfare of the zionist state first. You can't MAGA with an albatross like the antichrist "Jewish State" around your neck.

1) told private NFL owners what to do with their private employees where it concerns forced patriotism; Reminded the NFL of their own terms of contract and what is in its own regulations...as an aside, I stand but do not sing or cross my heart.2) threatened the broadcasting license of a major network after they reported that a cabinet member called him a moron;I think you may have confused a major network (NBC) saying he told the military he wanted 10,000 more nuclear missles thus that network possibly triggering another arms race?and 3) proposed a tax plan that will free the middle class from the burden of the tax man once and for all.Agreed, who should have means tested public welfare so that the middle class got more of its money back out of the clutches of DC ;-)

1) WTF business is it of the President to tell the NFL anything;2) NBC reported both the "moron" and "10,000 more nukes" stories. You really think Trump is worried that NBC started an arms race, or something else? Be honest.3) Trump is continuing the trend over the last 50 years or so of bleeding the middle class dry to feed the wealthy and the poor. The middle class has no voice. Candidate Trump won the Presidency because he claimed to be that voice.

1) Trump is a nationalist, you knew that when you voted for him. Of course, you did vote for him, didn't you? ;-)2) NBC also edited a 911 tape down to "...he looks black to me..."...didnt they? To what purpose?3) If the progs & the Alinsky media of NBC/CBS/CNN (etc) stopped fighting his every move you are of the opinion that he would not propose middle class tax relief? Then why did you vote for him?

Funny, Nmewn, you never doubted me when I told you I voted for zero. I guess you did doubt me when I told you I voted for Ron Paul (I did).As it concerns Trump, we were had. I've been a fool twice it seems. You're only working on once, so shame on you if you do it again.

Well, I knew what BOTH were.And if Trump manages to rip the guts out of prog-ESPN, the NFL and all its pandering sycophantic leeches (players, owners & reporters) drawing their outrageous paychecks while pretending to be "the little guys" concerned over BLS (or whatever) on the paying patrons dime so much the better.I find myself being quite a bit less "libertarian" after Obama and seeing what one man can do to EVERYTHING, now its all about retribution as far as I'm concerned. Trump should direct the yanking of NBC's affiliate licenses immediately who produced the lies on the public air waves simply because it was NOT in the public interest.Its "the law" Rand ;-)

You do indeed find yourself being less "libertarian" if you want the President to unilaterally yank the license of a news organization because it offended him. Imagine if they had suggested that he was a Kenyan Muslim.

I'm all for revoking the license of all major "news" organizations due to common ownership by major corporations. NBC is one of a few such entities. I would not single it out just because it offended me.

It's a religion, very similar to Islamism in it's goal of total control and it's demand for absolute submission. The details of the two religions don't matter much. Those details were created to advance towards the primary goal.

We already have an alternative to the "socialists". It's the current klepto-corporatocracy. The TBTF banks got bailed out to the tune of $29 trillion. It was called the socialization of losses and the privatization of profits. And do you think having the most expensive medical system in the world, because it's run by big insurance and big pharmacy, but subsidized by the middle class taxpayers, is a socialism, or klepto-corporatism?

Socialism is a fucking myth. When the "World's eight richest people have same wealth as poorest 50%", that ain't socialism, it's neofeudalism. Most of the world has become little more than human livestock for the plutocrats.

"Most of the world has become little more than human livestock for the plutocrats."

but also, current trends indicate that those "plutocrats" (whose "wealth" is based on being able to make "money" out of nothing as debts, while governments enforce those frauds) are preparing to mass murder the majority of the human population.I see no reason to doubt that the worst possible "solutions" will be the ones that the ruling classes impose in the context of the overall predicaments, which the following two videos illustrate:https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=8BMEImNf9M8Arithmetic, Population and Energy - 2 - a talk by Al Bartlett(From around the 4 to 7 minute marks.)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFyTSiCXWEEPeak mining & implications for natural resource management - Simon MichauxEndless exponential growth is absolutely impossible. The realistic questions are when and how will that growth be stopped?The most realistic answers are indicated by what the ruling classes in the dominant Anglo-American (Zionist) Empire have actually done, which was stage series of inside job, false flag attacks, in order to start more genocidal wars, as well as prepare to impose democidal martial law.For me, what clinches those conclusions are that there are NO publicly significant "opposition" groups which are not controlled by staying INSIDE taking for granted the same frame of references when thinking about the general issues regarding death control systems, and particularly with respect to the murder systems.I AGREE:

"WAR is a racket. ... as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people."

However, at the present time, and for the foreseeable future, it will continue to be politically impossible to have any relative rational public debates regarding death control issues in general, and especially murder system issues in particular.I note that nothing I have read by Mike Krieger proposes and promotes sufficiently radical alternative death control systems, within which alternative murder systems necessarily figure against that background. Nor have I ever read anything written by Krieger which forthrightly admits and addresses the issues illustrated by the two videos I linked above, regarding the previously possible exponential growth of the human population and economic activities rushing toward the sorts of seriously diminishing returns which are the manifestations of those limits to growth.When one seriously considers the list of possible alternatives presented by Al Bartlett, it strikes me that the most realistic resolutions will be those driven by the ruling classes, regardless of those being ruled over. In that overall context, the end goals of the increasingly psychotic psychopathic ruling classes appear to be to drive conditions towards the mass murder of the majority of people.Since most of those who are being ruled over are increasingly behaving like incompetent political idiots, there appear to be no good grounds to reasonably expect any other better resolutions of the underlying issues will be realistically possible. Furthermore, that is emphasized by the ways in which those mainstream morons have practically nowhere to turn to as possible alternatives than the various reactionary revolutionaries who make up almost the entire range of controlled "opposition" groups.Natural selection pressures were internalized as human intelligence, which was then applied to the most important selection pressures, which were other groups of people. Hence, the history of warfare, as organized crime on larger and larger scales, whereby success became based on deceits and treacheries. Thus, Globalized Neolithic Civilization became the expression of the ways that natural selection pressures drove the development of artificial selection systems to become as dishonest as possible.The about exponential progress in physical science has enabled those artificial selection systems to become about exponentially more dishonest. Within that overall context, wars continue to be rackets, that the vast majority of people do not understand, and have been conditioned to feel like they do not want to understand. Indeed, the ruling classes do everything that they can to prevent other people from understanding their rackets, especially including effectively controlling the apparent, publicly significant, "opposition" to those rackets.Once again, due to all the considerations outlined above, the most reasonable expectations are for Globalized Neolithic Civilization to continue to manifest runaway criminal insanities, which drive the eruptions of death insanities, in the form of various mass murders of the majority of the human population. Since the ONLY genuine alternatives would be alternative death control systems, given the underlying issues, BUT, those seem to be politically impossible, the outcomes are not likely to merely be "Empire-Destroying Wars." The tragic trajectory that Globalized Neolithic Civilization is on, as now dominated by the Anglo-American (Zionist) Empire, is the overall suicide of that technologically advancing Civilization, because of the degree to which it is politically impossible for that Civilization to go through sufficient series of intellectual scientific revolutions and profound paradigm shifts in order to actually achieve anything else.The deeper issues are not simply to recognize that there have developed globalized electronic monkey money frauds, backed by the threat of force from apes with atomic bombs, but rather, to recognize the degree to which those monkeys and apes "should" go through profound paradigm shifts in political science in general, and especially with respect to the perception of the general death control systems, and especially with regard to the murder systems in particular.Politics both is, as well as should be, applied human ecology, whose most important features are the death control systems, because after human life exists, then the death controls necessarily direct the evolution of that life. The current cul de sac of Globalized Neolithic Civilization is that the history of successful warfare became based on the maximum possible deceits and treacheries, which then became the foundation for political economy based on enforcing frauds.At the present time, and for the foreseeable future, human beings living inside Globalized Neolithic Civilization will most likely continue to deliberately ignore and misunderstand the relationships between natural selection and artificial selection. The current trends of the maximization of maliciousness, becoming about exponentially more malicious, are headed towards causing the mass murders of the majority of the human population, and possibly the eventual extinction of that technologically based Civilization.Since social successfulness became based on becoming as deceitful and fraudulent as possible, and those kinds of social "realities" included the ways in which the range of publicly significiant "opposition" groups tends to take for granted staying INSIDE those "realities," I do not believe that the ruling classes can be effectively prevented from continuing along the paths toward "Empire-Destroying Wars.""Livestock" will be slaughtered, when human farming rapidly runs into real limits.

Its a tiresome, selective, limp wristed recitation of Smedley Butler's book title.You see, Pol Pot, Stalin, Hitler, Jenjus Con (apologies to the haughty John Kerry) Alexander and an assortment of sultans, Mayans, Aztecs, kings & queens engaged in "pure wars" for all the best of reasons!Today the phrase only applies to America.Whenever I see the phrase it makes me want to vomit.

With the likes of Tom Cotton, the concern should be war with Iran.He's a "religious" zionist, like Pence, whose doctrines are rooted in Pharisaism(judaism). They see the "Jewish State" as God's chosen and if you don't do everything to support them, no matter, you will be cursed. They call themselves "christian", but have replaced Jesus with the zionist state, and Christians with antichrists.Zionism is a common thread, from the religious to the athiest, that yokes these people who'd normally be at odds, together. The zionist state has been throwing a hissy fit over Iran for decades. To give an idea of how dangerous these people are, they have devoted the US to the zionist state to such a degree that the Legislature has essentially given the power to declare war to "Israel" in the case of Iran. All they have to do is attack and the US will jump on Iran.